Improve railway facilities: MP

Tharoor hails installation of signal block system at Pettah.

Shashi Tharoor, MP, has welcomed the decision of the Railway authorities to make the Pettah railway station in the city the block station for incoming trains from the northern side instead of Kochuveli at present.

In a pressnote issued here on Monday, the MP said this would enable passengers to disembark at Pettah and proceed to destinations without having to waste time on trains waiting interminably for platform lines to be made available at Thiruvananthapuram Central. He expressed the hope that the signalling systems required for this would be installed at Pettah station expeditiously.

The MP said this was only one of the demands he had recently taken up with the Minister of Railways for improving infrastructure and services.

Peninsular zone

He also highlighted the need to create a Peninsular Railway Zone headquartered at Thiruvananthapuram. This, he added, was urgently required from a long-term strategic point of view and for the holistic development of the railway system in the southern-most part of the country.

Pending projects

Mr. Tharoor also called for expeditious action on all pending projects announced in the past two railway budgets, including concrete action for the setting up of the Railway Medical College and the raising of Thiruvananthapuram Central to international standards.

“It is high time the Railways gave serious attention to the development of infrastructure and facilities along the Thiruvananthapuram- Parassala route, including major projects at Nemom and Parassala stations where plenty of land is already available with the Railways…. It is not possible to ask the people to wait interminably for even simple demands such as increasing capacities of passenger trains which require only attachment of a few additional coaches,” he said.